Holiday Snacks: Panera Bread Gingerbread Man!

I spotted these the other day at Panera Bread. I don't believe they had these last year. I'm not very familiar with gingerbread... I don't know why, I've just never really been interested in it. But since it's another hectic December this year, I'm trying to squeeze in the holiday spirit everywhere I can!

The cool thing is that Panera Bread has their $.99 bakery item if you buy a meal so instead of paying $3 for this guy, I paid $.99!

Like I said, I'm not familiar with gingerbread but this little guy tasted like graham crackers. If you mushed them up and burned them a little. And of course like any food with a face, I had to make him talk as I ate him. Except all his lines were identical to the gingerbread man from Shrek lol! If only he had gumdrop buttons instead of M&M one's....

Snacks: Deep Fried Cheesecake.

I had my heart set on Todai for dinner after class one night but knowing we didnt have any money for it, I went to my favorite Chinese place, Manchu Wok!

They started serving Deep Fried Cheesecake so I decided to give them a try.

I was expecting it to be bigger... other than that, the crust isn't flaky but chewy. Not tempura chewy, almost like rice wrapper chewy. Which is good, I'm not a fan of tempura! The filling was creamy and definitely tasted like Cheesecake but nothing over powering. The powdered sugar on top gave it a nice sweet touch.

I see going back for more of these in my future!

Snacks: Wal Mart Cookies N' Cream Brownie.

Last year I discovered this brownie sitting on the table and snagged a slice. After inhaling that, I snagged another... and another... and another...

I have been on the search for it ever since. But I haven't been able to find it! I know it came from Wal Mart and it was a Cookies N' Cream brownie. My husband thinks I'm crazy but I finally (just now) showed him this picture and his typical response? "Mmm." See, I wasn't crazy! It actually really existed!

I can't give you a real review right now because well... it's been about a year since I've had it. But it was delicious. I'm not a huge fan of brownies or Cookies N' Cream, but this was bearable. And addicting.

If any of you spot this at your local Wal Mart at any time, please please please let me know!

Snacks: Grocery Outlet find!

Last week my husband took me to The Grocery Outlet because I had never been there, at least not that I remember... so we were browsing and I was actually excited because a lot of things I buy at grocery stores on a every-other-day basis was there! And for $1.50! When I normally buy them for much more than that!

I went to go look at the ice cream because well.... hello, it's my favorite isle (so is frozen foods)! And I found this....!!

I must have screamed when I saw this! This was my all time favorite ice cream when I was a kid! I seriously have NOT seen this since the 90's! I was so excited! AND it was $1.50! Oh my gosh! Oh how I wish I wasn't on my to class so I could had picked up a few boxes and enjoyed them at home in all of its creamy, vanilla-y, crisp goodness!

I will definitely be going back for a few of boxes of these!

Holiday Snacks: Cadbury Mini Eggs.

Every year, I patiently wait for these babies to make their appearance. I'm not a huge fan of Easter... it always reminds me of wearing an itchy dress and being forced to go to church then going Easter Egg hunting in said itchy dress but nope, you can't get the dress dirty!

But it also reminds me of warm sunny afternoons in high school when me and my best friend would snack on these babies and talk about boys.

I'm not a huge fan of chocolate either (I know, unheard of, right? A girl who doesn't like chocolate) but I'm a sucker for these!! I'm sad these only come once a year.

I love how colorful store isles get when the Easter candy comes out! Easter is almost here which is a slight bummer, the next colorful holiday isn't going to be until... Halloween?!

Baking: Valentines Day ready to make cookies.

My husband and I decided to bake some cookies last night, I love these! My mom had made the Easter version last year and I just love the swirled chocolate chips.

My husband was getting frustrated because every time he turned around, I'd grab a square of cookie dough and eat it! Haha. He was like "did you want cookies or just cookie dough?!" and he tried to scare me with the worms-growing-in-your-stomach story. I wasnt buying it! Besides, instead of figuring out how to make 24 cookies, now we only had to worry about 20 :) I think I actually helped the situation!

I'm not a fan of my oven. I can never remember if I should bake things on the top rack or the bottom. So at first, we had these at the bottom. And they burned around the edges but were raw in the middle so the husband switch it to the top and they just burned completely lol. I'm up for a second try!

The only frustrating part was that my parents had came home around the time we were making them and they were freaking out at the fact that they cookies were slightly burned. Did they forget I went to culinary school? I'm not going to burn down the kitchen, goodness.

Out To Eat: Cold Stone Sundae - Strawberry Funnel Cake

Cold Stone Creamery came out with these new sundae's. I cant remember exactly what they're called (and I cant find any info online) but I'm gonna take a guess and say that it was something along the lines for "Hot Sundae".

They have a few other selections. One being a Churro sundae, a brownie sundae, a caramel apple sundae, an apple cake sundae and I think there was another selection. I hope to try more of these!

The Strawberry Funnel Cake sundae normally comes with french vanilla ice cream but my husband wanted cheesecake instead. So okay, sure. Lets try it with cheesecake! Honestly to me, there wasnt much of a difference. The cheesecake made everything creamy, but it wasnt a huge difference. As for the sundae itself, the funnel cake was mini sized (which I dont mind, I can never finish an entire funnel cake on my own anyway), the strawberries were a bit soggy and there could had been more powdered sugar. It wasnt as sweet as your normal funnel cake with ice cream but it was a nice little mini treat.